U.S. forces escorted about 40 commercial vessels carrying roughly 18 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026 — a wartime high approaching 90% of the roughly 20 million barrels a day that moved through the chokepoint before the Iran war — while simultaneously striking nearly 60 Iranian military targets near the strait and fending off waves of Iranian drones, two U.S. officials familiar with the operations told CNN in a report updated Wednesday evening.

The escorts used a mix of air, sea, and space assets. U.S. forces also neutralized anti-ship cruise missiles during the transit, the first official said. Target sets around the strait included air-defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities, and communications nodes, both officials told CNN's Zachary Cohen and Adam Cancryn.

Most if not all of the 40 commercial ships turned off their Automatic Identification System transponders to stay hard to spot, according to the first official — a practice Trump administration officials say helps explain why public tracking understates how much oil is moving. Energy Secretary Chris Wright had already cited a Monday wartime record of more than 17 million barrels a day through the strait, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC the same figure was "not Iranian control of the strait."

The Sept. 1 package fits the administration's current wartime priority: keep commercial oil moving through Hormuz, keep hitting Iranian tools that threaten that traffic, and hold the naval blockade on Iranian ports. Nuclear-related priorities have been effectively "backburnered" for now, the first official said, with U.S. Central Command directed to focus on the strait and on keeping oil from leaving or entering Iranian ports. The blockade has prevented Iranian oil exports since July, the second official said.

President Donald Trump, speaking from the Oval Office on Wednesday, framed the latest strikes as denying Iran eyes on the waterway. "They were trying to see the ships," he said. "They can't see it because they have no radar, because we blew it up, and we blew up much more than their radar last night." He did not detail the rest of the target list.

Officials describe the near-strait strike campaign as persistent "mowing the grass" or "whack-a-mole" — Iran reconstitutes, the United States hits again — because Tehran can still threaten commercial traffic even after a successful escort day. By next month, the military hopes to widen the cleared lane through the strait so vessels can maneuver more freely and more oil can move under cover of that corridor.

Industry is not buying "total control" yet. CNN reported heavy skepticism from shipping officials and analysts who say daily spikes do not prove a durable average, and that charter rates for tankers willing to risk Hormuz have jumped past $500,000 a day in some estimates. Insurance remains expensive. LNG carriers appear even more cautious than crude tankers because a hit on that cargo would be catastrophic. An earlier, more public escort concept — Project Freedom — was shut down after Gulf partners, especially Saudi Arabia, objected; officials now say Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have made regional partners more open to coordination.

Eighteen million barrels in one escorted day is a real wartime high. It is also still short of prewar normal, still dependent on ships going dark, still priced into charter and insurance markets that treat Hormuz as a combat zone. Washington can blow up radar and shepherd a convoy. Convincing tanker owners that the lane is routine is a longer fight than one Tuesday.

Sources